I must be getting sappier as I get older, as this is not the sort of book I’d normally find appealing. I loved Cronin’s The 100 Years of Lenni and Margot (also a book I was afraid I’d find too sentimental) and I enjoyed this one just as much.
Eddie Winston is a 90-year-old working in a charity shop in Birmingham, U.K. People often donate the possessions of dead loved ones, and when Eddie finds sentimental items mixed in among the belongings, like letters and photos, he sets them aside in case people come back for them. A romantic at heart, when he can’t return these items, he treasures them instead.
When a grief-stricken young woman, Bella, donates some items from her deceased boyfriend Jake, she and Eddie form an unusual friendship. When Bella discovers that Eddie has never been kissed, she helps him enter the dating world. As a young man, Eddie fell in love with a married woman, Bridie, and the two were never able to be together. Eddie and Bella help each other deal with their heartbreak.
Clearly, this is a story for romantics. But it is also a story about grieving, and growth, and friendship. It’s a story about what has value in our lives, and how we’re never too old to explore something new.
What keeps this book from being “treacly” is the author’s wit and humor. Cronin not only develops a beautiful friendship between Bella and Eddie, but she also introduces a number of side characters that stand out, and it’s the details like Eddie’s crazy shirts, the charity shop mannequin, Pushkin the pet guinea pig, and Bella’s friend “Ham and Cheese” that make this story come to life.
As much as I enjoyed this book, it was also hard for me to read about 90-year-old Eddie when my own father, 91, was having such a terrible time. It was hard to imagine a 90-year-old with as much energy as Eddie, though of course it’s possible (my own father was in fantastic health until his late 80s). At first I thought maybe the author was not being realistic about Eddie’s age, but as I re-read some of it, she does indeed reference things like aching knees, etc. Eddie is simply unusually upbeat and in very good health for his age.
While I loved Lenni and Margot, I was happy that this book was much lighter in nature, though of course it still deals with some heavy topics. I liked the way the story is told, some of it from Bridie’s point of view, and some of it through letters from Bella to Jake. And I liked that not all of the relationships unfold in a predictable way.
If you already like Marianne Cronin, or if you’re looking to read something hopeful, I definitely recommend this book.
Note: I received an advanced reading copy from NetGalley and publisher Harper Perennial. This book is published on December 31, 2024.
